French Through Immersion with Whistlefritz – A Review

If you have read my blog much you know we LOVE studying foreign languages so we were excited to give Whistlefritz and their  Educator’s French Collection a try.

We got started with Whistlefritz right away.

We were excited to get started with the program and so we jumped in with the CDs in the car immediately. Allons Danser! CD was fun to listen to with the kids learning “La tête, les épaules, genoux, et pieds,” (Head, shoulders, knees, and toes) and several other fun French songs. All 3 kids, ages 3, 7, and 12 enjoyed singing along with the CDs in the car. I was pretty happy about that.

The Cha, Cha, Cha CD taught about numbers, months of the year, days of the weeks, and season, to name a few. The kids enjoyed this CD as well, though I’m pretty sure they all liked Allons Danser! the best. The kids enjoyed listening to the songs and dancing around to them.

Next I read through the workbook we received to accompany the Educator’s French Collection and how to start using the CDs and DVDs to move through the program. Though the program has listed sections of the videos to play and then discuss, I put in the first video and we watched the whole thing. The kids didn’t want to stop and I always feel its important to keep learning if they want to. I mean, really, why would I turn it off if they want more.

Again, all 3 kids were captivated. Though the program is stated to be for ages 1 to 7, my 12 year liked it too. She loves the French language and studies it otherwise so I think it was just fun for her to sign along and recognize words.

The other 2 seemed to be entranced in the videos and liked them. I liked that they weren’t bored within a few minutes of starting the video.

As I mentioned, the program is French through immersion. If you don’t understand immersion, in simple terms it just means that students learn through hearing the language naturally, not translated. So everything in the videos is spoken in French without translation, yet the kids pick it up. Just like they picked up Dora the Explorer and Sesame Street when they were little kids and learned their colors and numbers and seasons. (The DVD menu is translated for ease just in case you are worried about that.)

You can learn all about the Whistlefritz program, both Spanish and French, by watching this great trailer that explains what Immersion is and how the Whistlefritz programs work for your kids.

The videos are hosted by Marie, a very friendly, cute, bubbly girl who speaks beautiful French and seems to enjoy the videos which makes them that much nicer to watch. You know those young Kindergarten or Preschool teachers that all the kids love and everyone seems to enjoy and they seem to just love the little kids? – that’s Marie!

There are lots of children in the videos. These children (les enfants) are real kids having fun, talking and reacting to Marie making the video seem like real life interaction not a movie or lesson. The show also features “Fritzi,” an animated mouse, and “Rito,” an animated fox.

The first DVD, On Va Jouer, focuses on teaching parts of the body, numbers, clothes, and animals. The second DVD, Dedans et Dehors, goes room to the room in the house learning things you find in a house and also foods. The kids recognized a song in this video from the Cha, Cha, Cha CD.

There is a lot of kids giggling and laughing in the videos and my kids laughed right along with the characters and the children in the videos, which I thought was great. This really made them relaxed and enjoying the video, not thinking about the fact that they were “learning,” which is the joy and benefit and secret to immersion.

This video is a really great example of the French program. You can see how the student learns through immersion in the language. Learning with Whistlefritz is fun for the kids through these videos. Here is a sample of OnVaJouer – Let’s Play video:

Though it’s not a curriculum, you can use it with a more structured lesson plan if you wish.

Whistlefritz is not a “curriculum” so really, since it’s intended for younger learning, ages 1-7, all you really have to do is pop in the DVD and the CDs and watch and listen and they learn. However, with the Educator’s French Collection you also get a workbook to use to guide you and your young learners through lessons as well as flashcards to work on to accompany the DVDs and CDs.

The workbook is easy to use and gives exercises to work on what is being taught in the videos.

And the flashcards are fun to work with kids who are a little older that can work on word recognition. We played the memory game several times with the words. My 7 and 12 year old likes this game better but my 3 year LOVED finding a match.

Overall, Whistlefritz is a fun way to immerse your kids in a foreign language.

With Whistlefritz your children can learn a foreign language a fun way in the natural way of immersing in the language. All 3 of my kids enjoyed the colorful, fun way of learning French and speaking right away through familiar songs in French.

You can see what the rest of the Homeschool Review Crew thought of Whistlefritz French and Spanish programs by clicking the below banner.

And be sure to visit Whistlefritz on social media: